Jakob Schiller:
               
              Local skater Aisha Lumumba lands a jump at the Berkeley’s Iceland skating rink Thursday evening.?
Jakob Schiller: Local skater Aisha Lumumba lands a jump at the Berkeley’s Iceland skating rink Thursday evening.?

Page One

Berkeley Skating Rink on Thin Ice By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday December 28, 2004

City officials are threatening to shut down Iceland, Berkeley’s World War II-era ice skating rink, if the rink’s management doesn’t act fast to address dozens of code violations. -more-



For the East Bay, a Year Of Urban Casino Plans By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Was 2004 the East Bay’s Year of the Casino? -more-



Major Berkeley Building Projects Dominated the Headlines in 2004 By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Followers of Berkeley news over the past year might rightly conclude that town suffers from an edifice complex. -more-



Looking for Night Life In A City That Likes to Sleep By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday December 28, 2004

New Year’s Eve, the biggest party night of the year, and UC Berkeley Junior Adam Weiss knows where he’ll be hours before the clock strikes midnight. -more-



Looking Back on Cal Football’s Golden Season By STEVEN FINACOM

Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 28, 2004

I know where old sportswriters go when they die. They become the creative muses of publicity writers for college football teams. -more-



Features

Thousand Oaks Strives to Make a Home for All Students By ARWEN CURRY

Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 28, 2004

Debra Smith, 55, has watched over Thousand Oaks Elementary for 16 years. As cafeteria supervisor, she keeps the school’s kitchen and dining area polished to an immaculate gleam. She also teaches a cooking class to kids in the after-school program, and puts flowers on the tables in the warmly elegant, oak-paneled cafeteria. -more-


Local Supermarket Workers Keep Close Eye on Sacramento Agreement By JAKOB SCHILLER

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Workers in the Sacramento area will soon be voting to ratify a new union contract at three large California supermarkets, but Bay Area markets are still in doubt, according to Matthew Hardy, a spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers’ union. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday December 28, 2004

FLYING COTTAGE -more-



At Christmas Dinner, a Baby Gives A Sense of Hope for the World By SUSAN PARKER Column

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Christmas day at our house. Sixteen adults, one 7-year-old, a toddler, and two babies gather around a food-laden table in the dining room. Kanna Jo Nakamura-Parker, six weeks old, and smaller than a bread basket, lies quietly in her mother’s arms. It is her first visit to our home, her first Christmas, her first time competing for attention with an overcooked, over-stuffed turkey. -more-


Campaign 2008: Democrats Must Work Smart By BOB BURNETT News Analysis

Tuesday December 28, 2004

In Silicon Valley folklore, a typical project goes through five stages: unwarranted enthusiasm, unmitigated disaster, search for the guilty, persecution of the innocent, and promotion of the uninvolved. Evidently, the Kerry-Edwards “project” has advanced to the fourth stage where many, including Berkeley’s MoveOn.org, are being blamed for the Nov. 2 loss. -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Normal Hours Resumed -more-


Democracy Derailed On KPFA Board By BRIAN EDWARDS-TIEKERT Commentary

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Two weeks ago I was elected to KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB) with 43 percent of the KPFA staff’s first-place votes—more than twice what any other candidate received—in an election that, though unquestionably flawed, had the second-highest staff turnout in the five-station Pacifica Network. This Saturday, at what was to be the first meeting of the newly-constituted LSB, I was kept from assuming my position by what I believe to be an illegal move by the majority faction of the old LSB. -more-


First of its Kind Egyptian Protest Signals Hope For Democracy By SHADI HAMID Commentary

Pacific News Service
Tuesday December 28, 2004

It was a rare moment in modern Arab political history. Earlier this month in Egypt, 1,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the country’s Supreme Judicial Court, protesting President Hosni Mubarak’s plans to run for a fifth six-year term. -more-


Winter in California By STEVE KOPPMAN Commentary

Tuesday December 28, 2004

The saddest thing about California has to be its pathetic winters. Winter here is virtually meaningless. Whatever we may say about the East, at least there winter meant something: Crashing to the ground on ice-coated sidewalks, skidding happily across tractionless freeways, freezing to faintness as the bitter early morning cold cut off circulation to fingers and toes, friends calling from apartment windows before dropping snowballs in our faces, long hard afternoons of snow shoveling, Santa Claus hurtling through the slush in a one-horse open sleigh to Grandmother’s house to munch potato latkes. Like everything back East, there was so much to relish in retrospect, no matter how hard it may have been to take at the time. -more-


S.F. Chamber Orchestra Rings in the New Year With a Free Concert By IRA STEINGROOT

Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 28, 2004

If you think being locked in an aluminum shack on a hot afternoon with a life insurance salesman sounds more interesting than celebrating New Year’s Eve by going to a classical music concert, you don’t know Benjamin Simon, the music director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. He wants people to feel that “Classical music is fun, accessible and not stuffy.” -more-


Fractal Video Adds Berkeley Touch to Unique Works for Unique Artists By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday December 28, 2004

Chris Odell’s created the perfect job. -more-


Beauty, Truth and Bibliomania By JUSTICE PUTNAM

Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 28, 2004

“Why do you have four books by Bukowski?” She seemed disturbed as she closed The Most Beautiful Woman In Town. -more-


Election Section

Arts Calendar

Tuesday December 28, 2004

TUESDAY, DEC. 28 -more-


Pear Tree Blossoms of White And Red After Cold Nights By RON SULLIVAN

Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 28, 2004

I’d been hearing it all day, as I worked: an odd, low, chuckling call, from somewhere outside my house. Not a bird, or at least none I could remember hearing; a dyspeptic cat? A toy? A really odd phone? A musical instrument, played badly? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday December 28, 2004

TUESDAY, DEC. 28 -more-


Editorial

Global Disaster Plan Needed By BECKY O'MALLEY Editorial

Tuesday December 28, 2004

News of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Asia has shocked and scared those of us who live with the knowledge that it could happen here. When 3,000 Americans died suddenly in the World Trade Center, it seemed like an unimaginable number of deaths, but in Southeast Asia 23,000 deaths had been counted by Monday morning, with more to come as information continues to trickle in from remoter regions. For many Berkeley residents who have come here as students and stayed to become citizens, the fate of friends and family members back home caused immediate anxiety. Others of us have made friends through our travels to these countries and are worried about them now. Former Berkeleyans have settled in the affected countries, too—a good friend now lives in Bangkok, but often goes to beach resorts for vacations, and we haven’t heard from him yet. We heard from another friend who was on an island off the coast of Thailand that she was safe because she was on the landward side of the island, and we didn’t even know she’d gone there for a vacation until she e-mailed that she was all right. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Global Disaster Plan Needed By BECKY O'MALLEY Editorial 12-28-2004

A Miracle Reborn at the Freight and Salvage By GAR SMITH 12-24-2004

Public Comment

Promoting Children’s Rights in Uzbekistan By DIANA CABCABIN 12-24-2004

AMTRAK in the Spring By MAYA ELMER 12-24-2004

Aviary Ambassadors of Attitude By B(CYBERSPOOK) BURKE 12-24-2004

This Heart Needs a Home By PATRICIA LESLIE 12-24-2004

Cunning Linguist Dubya to Give Inaugrowl Address in Tougues By ARMIN A. LEGDON 12-24-2004

The Furry Ghost of Christmas Present By IRENE SARDANIS 12-24-2004

Walking Through Time By MARTHA E. BOSWORTH 12-24-2004

Mottles By HAL BOSWORTH 12-24-2004

Arts Calendar 12-24-2004

Berkeley This Week 12-24-2004

News

Berkeley Skating Rink on Thin Ice By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-28-2004

For the East Bay, a Year Of Urban Casino Plans By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-28-2004

Major Berkeley Building Projects Dominated the Headlines in 2004 By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-28-2004

Looking for Night Life In A City That Likes to Sleep By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-28-2004

Looking Back on Cal Football’s Golden Season By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet 12-28-2004

Thousand Oaks Strives to Make a Home for All Students By ARWEN CURRY Special to the Planet 12-28-2004

Local Supermarket Workers Keep Close Eye on Sacramento Agreement By JAKOB SCHILLER 12-28-2004

Letters to the Editor 12-28-2004

Editorial Cartoons By JUSTIN DEFREITAS 12-28-2004

At Christmas Dinner, a Baby Gives A Sense of Hope for the World By SUSAN PARKER Column 12-28-2004

Campaign 2008: Democrats Must Work Smart By BOB BURNETT News Analysis 12-28-2004

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-28-2004

Democracy Derailed On KPFA Board By BRIAN EDWARDS-TIEKERT Commentary 12-28-2004

First of its Kind Egyptian Protest Signals Hope For Democracy By SHADI HAMID Commentary Pacific News Service 12-28-2004

Winter in California By STEVE KOPPMAN Commentary 12-28-2004

S.F. Chamber Orchestra Rings in the New Year With a Free Concert By IRA STEINGROOT Special to the Planet 12-28-2004

Fractal Video Adds Berkeley Touch to Unique Works for Unique Artists By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-28-2004

Beauty, Truth and Bibliomania By JUSTICE PUTNAM Special to the Planet 12-28-2004

Arts Calendar 12-28-2004

Pear Tree Blossoms of White And Red After Cold Nights By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet 12-28-2004

Berkeley This Week 12-28-2004

Am I Blue? Not on Your Life: Colorful Reflections of a Red-Voting Berkeleyan By RED LANDERS 12-24-2004

The Unsung Deeds of Pumpsie And Wenzel By WILLIAM W. SMITH 12-24-2004

A Tale of Two Christmases By HELEN RIPPIER WHEELER 12-24-2004

Holiday Fairyland in The City By MAYA ELMER 12-24-2004

A Great Day, Even Without a Home Run By HARRY A. WENTWORTH 12-24-2004

Editorial Cartoons By JUSTIN DEFREITAS 12-24-2004

Kathryn By KAY WEHNER 12-24-2004

Three Poems By PHYLLIS HENRY-JORDAN 12-24-2004

The Tuesday Tilden Walkers By YVETTE HOFFER 12-24-2004

Berkeley Holiday Fund 12-24-2004

A Dream for Peace in the Middle East By TRACIE DeANGELIS SALIM 12-24-2004

Thoughts on a Planetary Life By HILDA JOHNSTON 12-24-2004

Return to a Closer Place By DOROTHY BENSON 12-24-2004

People’s Park, Berkeley By STEPHEN McNEIL 12-24-2004

GMO Food: The Ugly Face of America By RIO BAUCE 12-24-2004

Malvina Reynolds Way: A Proposal [See Footnote 1] By JIM GINGER 12-24-2004

On Poetry and Fathers By JUSTICE PUTNAM 12-24-2004

A Substitute Teacher’s Tale: By EDITH MONK HALLBERG 12-24-2004

A Call for Solar Energy Production By HARVEY SHERBACK 12-24-2004

Terrorism Begins at Home: A Personal Encounter With American Paramilitarism in America By PAUL MARCUS 12-24-2004

Two Giant Fat People By NANCE WOGAN 12-24-2004

The Year-End General Clean Up By FUSAKO DE ANGELIS 12-24-2004

Resolutions By BEN DITCH 12-24-2004

Thankful for a Berkeley Home By ROSE M. GREEN 12-24-2004

Santa and Bunny By STACEY GREENE 12-24-2004

The Ideal Governance For the City of Berkeley By FRED FOLDVARY 12-24-2004

A Poem By BILL TRAMPLEASURE 12-24-2004

FOR By MARCUS O'REALIUS 12-24-2004

Columns

A Recycled Christmas By JOANNE KOWALSKI 12-24-2004

happy free speech holiday By C.C.SAW 12-24-2004

NO DUMPING HERE By HELEN BRUNER 12-24-2004

Pixie Dust By PAUL TUMOLO 12-24-2004

A Community Garden Needs a Little Help By JANE HARADA 12-24-2004

Who Scares Who By ANDY BLACK 12-24-2004

Getting What You Need By MEL MARTYNN 12-24-2004

Looking for Poetry By JOYCE E. YOUNG 12-24-2004

Earthquake Country By HELENE KNOX Staff 12-24-2004

Thaw By HARRIET CHAMBERLAIN 12-24-2004